Noodle Day at UTS

Politicians often find themselves with egg on their faces, but last Wednesday at UTS it was noodles.

At “Noodle Day” events across Australia, students called for rent assistance and Youth Allowance to be increased, the age of independence to be lowered and an end to student poverty.

Amidst a sea of cardboard boxes, tents and milk crates, instant noodles were distributed which students ate and threw at cardboard cut-outs of politicians they say haven’t done enough for student financial hardship, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

UTS Students Association President Rachael Durrant said the importance of the protest was two-fold.

“We are getting the grassroots support, we are mobilising students to really stand up to the Government and show them … that there are a lot of students who feel passionate about this,” she said.

“But also here today with our politicians cut-outs we’re actually giving students a chance to feel a little bit empowered and just get their own back at the politicians who stalled for so long [on the issue].”

Ms Durrant said she was pleased to see government progress on the Youth Allowance issue but said many students had missed out in the meantime.

“While we welcome the changes, we recognise that there were so many delays … and what we got was the watered-down budget neutral version,” she said.

“It’s almost more like a token gesture than actual real change.

“It took so long for it to happen and there were huge issues with students not being able to get their start-up scholarships … and students who just decided to not move interstate because they didn’t know if they’d be able to afford it.”

She said more reforms to youth allowance were needed.

“We would like the age of independence to be lowered even further,” she said.

“The government has announced that it’s going to be decreased to 22 … we’ve love that back to 18. You can enlist at 18, you can vote at 18 … we should be declared independent at 18.”

Ms Durrant said the other issue of concern was student housing.

“We’re really worried about students who can’t afford to pay rent who are either commuting from really long distances or couch surfing or living in really over-crowded houses,” she said.

“Here at UTS … the university is taking that step towards providing housing for students but we need to make sure that it is going to be affordable … Our biggest concern is that there won’t be spots for those who really need it.”